The politics of women's time

This article draws on phenomenological perspectives of time to develop a temporal perspective on mothering. It argues that feminist politics, whether organised around women's "sameness" or "difference" to men, has tended to re-inforce dominant conceptions of time as an already formulated category that can be divided up into natural or social components. This way of conceiving tune obscures the need for time to be constituted as a socially meaningful category through maternal subjectivity. The phenomenological perspective developed highlights the reflexive nature of this process of engendering time, focusing on the way in which the child's developing sense of self in relation to others is shaped by a process of mutual recognition made possible by maternal reflexivity. It then considers the possible consequences of transforming the temporal structures of the workplace to gain greater "workplace flexibility," on these temporal processes of mothering, and the implications for feminist politics.